RE: Missing original graphics in Eagles Strike update?
There is a psychological reason why Side-View in these games is so popular and important:
99% of the historical imagery we have seen throughout our lives of the various conflicts of the last 100+ years is from images captured at ground level... i.e. side views, side angles.
I believe our minds have become attuned to those images over time and they have immediate associations for us... so when we see a silhouette of an armored unit, it is instantly recognizable as to what it is because we've seen it so many times in so many forms.
When we use top-down imagery, we break that mental association and with that comes a loss of comfort and familiarity. With top-down, there will be many moments of looking at something on the virtual battlefield and our minds not yet connecting that image with all the information we have gathered about it - thus a disconnect occurs and the normal chain reaction of recognition, comfort, & ease is lost... and the chain reaction never quite reaches that emotional center that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy about a game.
If our visual history of these wars were mainly from a pilot's perspective, then I think the reverse would be true.
So I really do think something is lost when top-down is used in very historically rooted genres such as Squad Battles.
Just my .02!
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